Wes Streeting has enjoyed something of a dream start since his promotion to shadow health secretary a month ago. Confident at the despatch box and assured on a media round, his performance in the ‘Plan B’ debate had centrist dads of a certain vintage humming ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ once more. But while Labour’s poll lead has shot up in recent weeks, the spectre of Covid has emerged once more to remind Sir Keir’s Starm troopers of the unpredictable perils of pandemic politics.
The emergence of Omicron just before Christmas posed a challenge to politicians of all stripes: should we reintroduce restrictions to stop the health service being overwhelmed? Boris Johnson, for his part, opted not to, despite the devolved administrations in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast all opting to bring them back from Boxing Day. At the time Labour’s position was ambivalent, with Streeting releasing a milquetoast statement on 21 December which – aside from the standard Tory-bashing – merely demanded families and businesses been given ‘certainty’; something the coronavirus has shown little sign of granting.
Perhaps the party is keen to avoid a repeat of July, when Keir Starmer declared that ‘Boris Johnson’s recklessness means we’re going to have an NHS summer crisis.
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